Friday, September 28, 2012

Akin got in the way of his own attempt at post-debate spin when he
said McCaskill was more “ladylike” during her debate in 2006.

Yep.

For real.

Way!

Now, some folk are hyper-focusing on Akin’s use of the term
“ladylike”…and I get that, because that shit well known code for a woman who
doesn’t race barefoot to the kitchen after folding some assholes shirts.

I’m more interested in Akin’s entire verbal malfunction, because
it speaks to his deep-seated dislike of women.

"I think we have a very clear path to victory, and
apparently Claire McCaskill thinks we do, too, because she was very aggressive
at the debate, which was quite different than it was when she ran against Jim
Talent."

"She had a confidence and was much more ladylike, but
in the debate on Friday she came out swinging, and I think that's because she
feels threatened."

Fascinating use of misogynist code!

Translation...

Men who “come out swinging” display strength and conviction.

Women who do the same are aggressive, defensive, and…wait
for it…unladylike.

Cough.

You know and I know that Akin’s resume is so chock full of
extremism that anyone running against him has to jump right up in that
kitchen and take over lest Akin dodge his public statements in favor of the
diluted freak juice Team Akin thinks they can sneak past Missouri voters.

Methinks Todd Akin spent way too much time of his bus
getting advice from a certain submission-is-for-you-but-not-for-me Phyllis
Schlafly.

I’m betting that Senator McCaskill is operating on the
political reality that well-behaved women rarely make history.

And odds are that's why Akin is so distressed.

He sure as shit is in it, but Missouri can not afford for his throw-back ass to win it.

I know, I know…he’s apologized and tried to brush it off as
a verbal malfunction.

But…well, that’s the thing that’s taxing my Afro.

After he realized that folks were disgusted and disturbed by
his claim that women’s bodies have a way of preventing pregnancy from resulting
from “legitimate rape”, Akin acknowledged that his bizarre theory came from
some freakish conservative source.

So, Akin actually didn’t misspeak.

Up until August 19, 2012, Todd Akin thought women’s bodies
could “shut down” a pregnancy resulting from rape if that rape was
“legitimate.”

As Akin likes to point out, he’s the husband to one, father to
six, and grandfather to seven…and he's spent 65 years of life not knowing how
pregnancy works.

65 years of life believing that women who became pregnant as
a result of rape were lying.

Todd Akin may be running for a Senate seat, but he's been sitting in the United States House and played key roles in drafting
legislation seeking to redefine rape and deny women access to the full range of
reproductive health care.

And, if we take Akin at his word, until August 19 of this
year he thought some rape was legitimate and other rape was bullshit…that some
women deserved care and other women deserved scorn and restrictions.

Thursday, September 20, 2012

I’m sure that there are folks who are encouraged and blah,
blah, followed by blah.

But the reality is that Chick-fil-A showed that their flawed value having kitchen is filthy and I’m not going to forget that shit just because
they are now saying they won’t allow filth mongers back there anymore.

Fuck ‘em.

Since fast food companies have started to come out as ig’nant, I’ve discovered many a progressive local eatery where I can score a tasty
sandwich without lining the pockets of some bigot who you know and I know will make a private donation to anti-equality groups and
candidates to offset the donations Chick-fil-A is sorta-claiming they’re no
longer going to make.

Wednesday, September 19, 2012

I’ve noticed that the press has dodged addressing some of
the other shit Mitt Romney was caught saying to donors, like his attempted joke
that he’d have a better shot at winning the presidency as a Latino.

"My dad, as you probably know, was the governor of
Michigan and was the head of a car company. But he was born in Mexico ... and
had he been born of Mexican parents, I'd have a better shot at winning this.
But he was unfortunately born to Americans living in Mexico. He lived there for
a number of years. I mean, I say that jokingly, but it would be helpful to be
Latino."

But most anchors and reporters have opted to clumsily fumble
through explanations of who pays income taxes and blah, blah, blah instead of
tackling the other gaffe Mitt made that evening in the Hamptons.

See, the same thing that would have made Mitt’s joke score
some laughs (if he hadn’t fucked up the punch line) is the exact same thing
that makes anchors and reporters uncertain whether his Latino comments will
result in any real political damage.

The thing?

There is a widely held belief that being a minority has
guaranteed advantages for those seeking any sort of advancement.

I’ve personally encountered that shit. I’ll never forget having an
academically challenged friend respond to news that my sister was accepted at
Harvard with a “joke” that he should paint his face black and apply too. Everybody at the table laughed…except
me. More than one friendship ended that day.

I was disappointed, but not surprised.

Just as I’m disappointed but not at all surprised that so
many anchors and reporters have avoided discussing Romney’s Latino “joke”.

If Romney’s callous disregard for the struggles working
people face and his boorishly stated belief that 47 percent of us see ourselves
as victims are seen as troublesome, then Romney’s crass "joke" about the political
benefits to be had simply from being born Latino sure as shit is too.

Tuesday, September 18, 2012

I had the pleasure of witnessing the latest Mitt Romney
verbal malfunction unfold with a certain C-Money. We were hanging out in our couch-based lair,
checking Twitter and dropping snark for hours.

Good times!

For those who missed it, Mother Jones broke a story complete
with secret video (oooh, damn near Nixonian!) of how Mitt Romney talks about
the masses when he thinks he’s among like-minded uber rich folk.

By “masses”, I mean the 47 million Americans he was caught
on tape saying he could give a flying fuck about.

Mitt thinks we’re lazy and dependent on government. Oh, and
he also thinks we don’t pay taxes.

Pause…frown…continue.

Yeah, that bit about the taxes made my Afro hurt too, until
I realized that discussing regular people paying taxes with Mitt Romney would
be like chatting about how expensive groceries are with [insert any Romney
here].

Odds are Mitt Romney hasn’t bothered to learn how payroll
taxes work because he never had any intention of keep workers on the payroll
long enough to be taxed.

Anyhoo, at some point I mentioned how Lee Atwater would have
handled Romney’s late night press conference…and that’s when C-Money demanded a
post on this shit.

Lee Atwater was a dirty motherfucker…so dirty he was a
master at modern political dirt distribution…but at least he was good at that
shit.

When Atwater
race-baited your ass, his hook had some serious unambiguous rancid ass bait on
it. Lee put together campaigns that hit their mark with painful
accuracy…causing outrage on the side he could give a shit about and inspiring
cheers from the group he wanted to hear cheering. Atwater
was up in the head of the voters he needed to get the job
done…the job being to get [insert conservative nightmare
here] elected.

Now, we’ve got Mitt Romney fumbling through fundraising
talks trying to be all delicate about saying that if he were Latino he’d have
an easy time winning the presidency…after trying to arouse his bored as shit
audience with watered down digs at 47 percent of the nation!

Mitt has insulted half the nation and managed to do so with
such lame assedness that his base couldn’t be bothered to shrug.

This is just…disturbing.

Okay, okay…so I don’t actually want to see the second coming
of Lee Atwater.

One life-cycle of Lee was more than enough, thank you.

*wince*

But if someone is going to pander to the baser needs of his
base…and if doing so requires race-baiting elite ass dismissive comments about
voters…hell, if a candidate is going to take his campaign from zero to absolute
FUBAR in record breaking time the least he can do is make that shit interesting.

Monday, September 17, 2012

Anyone who knows me knows that I adore hockey and get a lot
of joy out of the NHL season.
Thanks to a fantabulous year last year for my beloved Blues, I also got
a hell of a lot of joy out of the post-season!

But NHL hockey requires NHL hockey players…and they deserve a
fair deal since they are the ones giving the faithful something to cheer about.

Someone ought to keep track of how much money Missouri is going to
spend defending Senator Lamping’s legislative pander to the Missouri Conference
of Catholic Bishops.

Pause…consider…continue.

Lamping’s birth control refusal law empowers government to take
rights from workers and step all up in folk’s bedrooms.Lamping’s Law basically has government deciding
that anyone who takes birth control forfeits their rights to their employer.

AND the damn thing is going to cost the state some serious
cash.

If it walks like it and talks like it, we should call it
what it is…an expensive, ill advised, intellectually lazy, big government, theocratic
shake-down.

_______________________________________________

Let’s jump right on in, shall we?

I went to bed mad as hell…

….and woke up wishing that Missourians could feel the full
weight of what the Missouri Assembly just did.

The Missouri Assembly had their veto session Wednesday,
September 12. They took up Senator
Lamping’s Birth Control Refusal bill SB749.

The Senate took less time to override Governor Nixon’s veto
than they spent unveiling a portrait earlier in the day.

The House cut off debate lest they hear just how trifling
this rancid bill is and then the peer pressure began.

But wait…let me back up.

Before debate was cut off, (and that was so cowardly weak I
can’t even tell you) several Representatives stood up to speak out against
overriding the veto. I listened
live and recognized the voices of a few.
Then a woman started speaking and I couldn’t tell who it was. I took to Twitter because some people
were live tweeting the debate and…well, suffice it say I was SHOCKED that
Representative Linda Black (D-107) was speaking out in favor of sustaining the
veto.

Rep. Black, who is solidly opposed to abortion rights, spoke in favor of
sustaining the veto because she is solidly opposed to abortion. Black, unlike the majority under the
dome, acknowledged the fact that restricting access to birth control results in
more unplanned pregnancies and thus more abortions.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – folks who are
opposed to abortion who then turn around and try to deny access to birth
control can not, do not, and will not make a lick of sense… not that most folk
working under the dome in Jefferson City fret about making sense or doing the
right thing.

I disagree with Rep. Black on abortion…but she sure as hell
has the courage of her convictions and shamed the cowards when she stood up
yesterday.

Any employer…any employer…any damned employer in the state
of Missouri will now be able to provide an insurance package devoid of
contraception or sterilization coverage because that employer has some sort of
moral objection.

The law is certain to be challenged in court by insurance
companies who opposed the hell out of it.

That’s what I woke up pondering and regretting.

I’ve come to the conclusion that the way to address the rot
in Jefferson City is for the masses to feel the ache.

In this case, the thousands of Missourians who use birth
control and take insurance coverage for granted need to have that coverage
revoked. They need to hear their
employer explain his or her religious objection during their annual plan
meeting…and then they need to get royally fucked over each month for 12
consecutive months until the next plan meeting.

But they won’t…because Missouri is fixin’ to go to
court. We just haven’t been served
papers yet.

Tuesday, September 11, 2012

We had some great moments
and several years of painful drama, but I take comfort that we were on solid
ground when he took his final walk down Michigan Ave in Chicago and died of a
heart attack.

It took several years for me to realize that the pain of his
loss will be a constant companion.

It took even longer for me to welcome those unexpected
tugs…from driving by a hardware store and remembering how fun it was to help
out with small repairs to walking down grocery store aisles and recalling my
father’s intense focus on food brought on by a childhood spent in hunger.

I miss my father every single day.

And every now…without setting a schedule or planning it all out…I
pause in remembrance and do something that I know would make my father smile.

I eat a giant bowl of ice cream for breakfast.

Yep, ice cream.

Because my father once lied to some mean-girls at my grade
school and told them that everyone who comes over to our house for a sleep-over
gets ice cream for breakfast. I
can still see the look of awe on their faces…can still feel the giggle working
through my body…I still feel adoration for my father for knowing exactly what
to say to those girls I so desperately wanted to impress.

Later, my father told me that only silly people follow silly
rules and deny themselves ice cream when they want it.

If he were still with us, he would sit down next to me and
dig into that ice cream with gusto.

I always add an extra scoop just for him.

Far too many people know
the constant companionship of loss.

I know that they probably feel those unexpected tugs too.

And I hope that they also pause and do
something special to remember…

…even if it is something as ridiculously perfect as inhaling
a huge bowl of ice cream at 7 o’clock in the morning.

Politics is still local and elections are still won or lost
on the ground.

Most states have races that should have every registered
voter fired up and ready to go.The contrasts couldn’t be greater…and the stakes couldn’t be higher.

So get up in the business of people you know…ask them if
they are registered to vote and make sure they know how important this election
is.Find out if you live in a
voter id state and, if you do, make sure everyone you know understands what that
means.

Ask them if they have a
state issued id…and, if they don’t, help them get one.

I’m emerging from the Labor Day holiday full of fretful
thoughts over the NHL labor dispute that has now entered the countdown phase
and could fuck up the season. I noticed some fans berating players on Twitter
and…well, that’s not the route I’d go.Seriously, fussing at players who are resisting what appears to be a
money grab by owners for a bigger share of increased revenues that are the
result of the players labor strikes me as intellectually lazy.

Catch that knee!

I’m as eager for hockey as anyone.But I know that the history of professional hockey is
littered with players getting screwed…I’m a Blues fan because of the team, not
the people in suits…and the only people more motivated to see skates hit ice
than my ass are NHL hockey players.

So I stand with the players even as I offer hourly prayers to the
hockey gods.

On whether I’m better off today than I was four years ago…

Apparently, the campaign trail has heated up post GOP
convention with the Republican challenge that voters ponder the question of
whether we’re better off today than we were four years ago.

My answer?

Yes.

I’m serious.

Four years ago I, like all Americans, had a damn near mortal
economic wound and didn’t even know it!

We had an election and no one told me about it.

And then the market was crashing…the economy was in a nosedive…and we
were on the brink of The Great Depression Round 2.

Four years ago, the nation experienced the equivalent of
returning home after leaving a teen alone at home for the first time.Some of us knew that the teen wasn’t ready,
but we were overruled by the damned majority.So leave the unready teen in charge we did…and then we
returned home, hoping for the best but thinking we were prepared for the worse.

But we underestimated just how much
fucking up a veteran fuck up can accomplish in 8 years...and woke up to that harsh reality
during the transition from Bush to Obama.

The question of whether I’m better off today than I was
four years ago is easy to answer.

I mean, you’d have to be completely out of touch and
desperate with it to decide to remind my voting ass that the last CEO in Chief left
the nation facing a situation that was damn near FUBAR…

…or perhaps Romney/Ryan is betting on benefiting from the short-term
memory of American voters like Bush the II did in 2004.

***shudders***

Anyhoo, this week brings the DNC in Charlotte and then the
games really begin!